The present invention relates to breast pumps and more particularly to an adapter for enabling existing breast pumps to fill infant nursers having disposable liners and methods of operation.
The combination of an increased awareness of the health benefits of breast-feeding an infant and the increased number of women returning to the work force shortly after giving birth has led to an increased use of breast pumps for maintaining a supply of breast milk for the infant when the mother is unavailable. Banks of donors' breast milk have also been established to nourish needy infants. A wide variety of types of breast pumps is available, both manual and electrically operated. The most effective breast pumps provide alternating positive and negative pressure at 45 to 60 cycles per minute to simulate the sucking action of the infant. Most such pumps provide a receptacle for temporarily receiving the extracted milk. The milk is then transferred to the baby bottle or to a freezer container for freezing and long-term storage.
Infant nursers, such as those manufactured and sold under the PLAYTEX trademark, consisting of a disposable polyethylene plastic liner fitted inside a rigid, reusable plastic shell, have become very popular due to the convenience and added cleanliness and safety which comes from not having to wash and reuse the baby's bottle. Disposable bags of a nylon/polyethylene laminate have also been developed to reduce the loss of nutrients when the milk is stored over a long period of time. Where the mother wishes to utilize a nurser to feed her own breast milk to her child, it has been necessary for the mother to express the milk by hand into the disposable liner or use a breast pump and transfer the extracted milk by hand from the pump container to the nurser. Both procedures are time-consuming, messy and unsanitary.
One breast pump known to the inventor, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,504, issued Nov. 10, 1987 to Viers, uses a disposable, removable bag to receive the pumped milk, but this design involves using a squeezable rubber bulb to create the negative pumping pressure, and the disposable bag is held onto the rubber bulb by an elastic band. The bag has no rigid support. Consequently, this pump is difficult and inefficient to use and still requires that the user transfer the filled bag of milk to the nurser or some other dispenser.
There is therefore a need for an effective adapter which allows existing breast pumps to be used to fill infant nursers directly.
The present invention provides an adapter for filling infant nursers from a breast pump and methods of operation therefor. The adapter comprises a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast, a storage reservoir communicating at its upper end with and extending downwardly from the shield and substantially closed at its lower end by a surface extending obliquely to the plane normal to the longitudinal direction of the reservoir, and an air inlet communicating with the reservoir for connecting the pump. The air inlet may be shielded by a baffle. According to one embodiment, there is a resilient clip extending from the exterior wall of the reservoir near the upper end thereof and beneath the shield for releasably securing the adapter to the lip of the nipple-retaining cap. The closed end of the reservoir has a groove across its upper portion for seating on the lip of the nipple-retaining cap of the nurser and a hole for the passage of milk. In a second embodiment , the adapter has a threaded circular rim moulded as a unitary part of it, and which threads onto the end of the nurser shell.
In a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided a method of filling an infant nurser having an adapter and a chamber in the adapter in communication with a breast shield, the nurser further including a rigid shell and a flexible liner within the shell forming a container for storing milk, and a passage through the adapter for communication between the chamber and the flexible container, comprising the steps of applying a first pressure within the chamber in communication with a female breast through the breast shield for expressing milk from the breast into the chamber in response to the application of the first pressure in the chamber, the step of applying the first pressure including applying a negative suction to the chamber to draw a portion of the flexible liner against the adapter to seal the passage, applying a second pressure within the chamber higher than the first pressure to displace the flexible liner portion away from the adapter to enable flow of milk from the chamber through the passage into the flexible container, temporarily storing in the chamber the milk expressed therein during application of the first pressure, flowing the milk from the chamber into the flexible container during application of the second pressure and alternating the pressure applied to the chamber between the first and second pressures.
In a further preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided apparatus for filling infant nursers comprising an infant nurser having a rigid shell and a flexible, liquid-containing liner supported in the rigid shell, an adapter including a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast, means defining a hollow chamber in communication at one end with the shield and substantially closed at its opposite end, the chamber-defining means having a wall portion with an aperture through the wall portion for the passage of milk from the chamber into the liner, means carried by the adapter for connecting a pump in communication with the hollow chamber to produce alternating pressures within the chamber, means carried by the adapter for releasably securing the adapter to the nurser and relative to the flexible liner supported in the nurser whereby the wall portion is placed in sufficiently close proximity to a portion of the flexible liner to cause the liner portion to act as a valve with respect to the aperture, the wall portion including a concave portion about the aperture and in opposition to the liner for facilitating movement of the liner portion toward the aperture into the concave portion to seal the aperture and away from the aperture outwardly of the concave portion to open the aperture in response to the alternating pressures within the chamber and the shell having an end portion, the securing means including an annular cap about the end portion of the shell securing the liner between the shell and the cap with the liner disposed within the shell end portion, the wall portion including a convex portion in general conformance to the curvature of the shell, the concave portion being disposed in the convex portion.
In a still further preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided an adapter as part of a breast pump for filling infant nursers wherein the infant nurser comprises a flexible, liquid-containing liner supported in a rigid shell, the adapter comprising a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast, means defining a hollow chamber in communication at one end with the shield and substantially closed at its opposite end, the chamber-defining means having a wall portion with an aperture through the wall portion for the passage of milk from the chamber into the liner, means carried by the adapter for connecting a pump in communication with the hollow chamber to produce alternating pressures within the chamber and means carried by the adapter for releasably securing the adapter to the nurser and relative to a flexible liner supported in the nurser whereby the wall portion is placed in sufficiently close proximity to a portion of the flexible liner to cause the liner portion to act as a valve with respect to the aperture, the wall portion including a concave portion about the aperture and in opposition to the liner for facilitating movement of the liner portion toward the aperture into the concave portion to seal the aperture and away from the aperture outwardly of the concave portion to open the aperture in response to the alternating pressures within the chamber.
In a still further preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided an adapter as part of a breast pump for filling infant nursers wherein the infant nurser comprises a flexible, liquid-containing liner supported in a rigid shell, the adapter comprising a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast, means defining a hollow chamber in communication at one end with the shield and substantially closed at its opposite end, the chamber-defining means having a wall portion with an aperture through the wall portion for the passage of milk from the chamber into the liner, means carried by the adapter for connecting a pump in communication with the hollow chamber to produce a negative pressure within the chamber, means carried by the adapter for releasably securing the adapter to the nurser and relative to a flexible liner supported in the nurser whereby the wall portion is placed in sufficiently close proximity to a portion of the flexible liner to serve in conjunction with the liner portion as a valve with respect to the aperture and a manual actuator carried by said adapter for actuating said valve.
In a still further preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided apparatus for filling infant nursers comprising an infant nurser having a rigid shell and a flexible, liquid-containing liner supported in the rigid shell, an adapter including a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast, means defining a hollow chamber in communication at one end with the shield and substantially closed at its opposite end, the chamber-defining means having a wall portion with an aperture through the wall portion for the passage of milk from the chamber into the liner, means carried by the adapter for connecting a pump in communication with the hollow chamber to produce alternating pressures within the chamber, means carried by the adapter for releasably securing the adapter to the nurser and relative to the flexible liner supported in the nurser whereby the wall portion is placed in sufficiently close proximity to a portion of the flexible liner to cause the liner portion to act as a valve with respect to the aperture, the wall portion including a concave portion about the aperture and in opposition to the liner shell for facilitating movement of the liner portion toward the aperture into the concave portion to seal the aperture and away from the aperture outwardly of the concave portion to open the aperture in response to the alternating pressures within the chamber, the actuator including a valve closure element movable in response to movement of the actuator into a position for closing the liner portion into sealing engagement about the aperture and the shell having an end portion, the securing means including a threaded cap about the end portion of the shell securing the liner between the shell and the cap with the liner disposed within the shell end portion.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an adapter as part of a breast pump for filling an infant nurser in combination with the infant nurser, comprising a rigid shell having an open end, a flexible liner for containing a liquid and supported within the rigid shell about the open end, a breast shield carried by the adapter for receiving a female breast, means carried by the adapter defining a hollow chamber in communication at one end with the shield and substantially closed at its opposite end, the chamber-defining means having a wall portion with a passage through the wall portion for passing liquid from the chamber into the liner, a pump including a housing and a member movable relative to the housing defining at least in part an expandable and contractable volume within the housing, the volume being in communication with the chamber, means for displacing the member relative to the housing for producing alternating pressures within the chamber, a valve for opening and closing the passage in response to the alternating pressures within the chamber and means carried by the adapter for releasably securing the adapter to the shell adjacent the open end thereof, the adapter and the liner being located relative to one another such that the wall portion and a portion of the flexible liner are located in sufficiently close proximity to one another to cause the flexible liner portion to act as the valve with respect to the passage.
In a still further preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is provided a breast pump in combination with an infant nurser comprising a generally cylindrical shell having an externally threaded neck portion, a flexible liner disposed in the shell with portions overlapping the neck portion of the shell and the externally threaded portion thereof, an adapter as part of the breast pump for filling the liner with milk including a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast and an opening an the adapter for discharging milk from the adapter into the liner, means including an internally threaded part for cooperation with the externally threaded neck of the shell for releasably securing the adapter, shell and liner to one another, means in communication with the chamber for periodically changing the pressure in the chamber and a valve for opening and closing the opening in response to the changing pressure in the chamber, the adapter opening being located relative to the liner within the shell such that a wall portion of the adapter about the opening is placed in sufficiently close proximity to the flexible liner to cause a portion of the liner to act as a portion of the valve with respect to the adapter opening whereby the liner portion and the wall portion cooperate to open and close the adapter opening.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for expressing milk from a female breast and storing the milk to facilitate the nursing of an infant, comprising a generally cylindrical shell having an externally threaded neck portion, a flexible liner disposed in the shell with portions overlapping the neck portion of the shell and the external threads thereof, an adapter for filling the liner with milk including a breast shield adapted to receive a female breast and an opening in the adapter for discharging milk from the adapter into the liner, means including an internally threaded part for cooperation with the externally threaded neck of the shell for releasably securing the adapter, shell and liner one to the other, the securing means including a collar carrying the internally threaded part.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved breast pump adapter for filling nursers having disposable liners and methods of operation including improvements with respect to the breast pump adapter in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,236, issued Aug. 21, 1990, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.